The present invention is directed to the field of error diagnosis in computer systems, and in particular to diagnosis techniques using memory dump files that are generated by operating software under error conditions.
In the operation of computer systems it is known to generate a copy of system memory at a time that an unusual error condition occurs (i.e., an error condition not addressed by normal error-handling functionality of the operating software affected by the error). Such copies of system memory are referred to as “dumps” or “memory dumps”, and they include a variety of potentially useful information in raw and often voluminous form. Software developers and system support engineers analyze memory dumps to glean the system operating state at the time an error occurred, this information being useful in diagnosing logic or other programming errors that have contributed to the error itself or to the system's undesired response to a separate error occurring during operation.